Latest / 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories / Integrity VS Murder
Transcript
- 0:35Christopher Dorner came into the world with one word that would shape his life for
- 0:40better and for worse. Integrity. Born in the summer of nineteen seventy nine,
- 0:46he grew up in California and later graduated from Southern Utah University. Those
- 0:51who knew him described him as a quiet, but sweet person, friendly and
- 0:56loyal. He was athletic and a team player. He grew up playing sports,
- 1:00and he even played on the university's football team while he was studying.
- 1:03But life for Christopher was not without its hardships. He later admitted that he'd
- 1:10been the only African American student in all of his classes from first grade to
- 1:15seventh grade, and as we all know, children can be cruel to anyone
- 1:19who's different. Christopher claimed that he was often targeted and bullied because of his
- 1:25race, and the after effects of this racial abuse were something that would stick
- 1:30with him for the rest of his life. Writing online years later, Christopher
- 1:34stated that he wasn't quote a hoodlum, a gangster, or an aspiring rapper
- 1:40like people made him out to be. In fact, Christopher knew what he
- 1:44wanted to be early on in life, and it was far from what he
- 1:47believed the media and his classmates painted him as When he was still a teenager,
- 1:53Christopher joined his local police department's youth program, and after attending university,
- 1:57he jumped right back in his chosen career. He officially began his police training
- 2:04at the Academy, but stopped in two thousand and two when he joined the
- 2:07United States Navy Reserve. He led a security unit at Naval Air Station Fallon
- 2:13in Nevada before deploying to Bahrain for almost three years of service. When Christopher
- 2:20was honorably discharged in twenty thirteen, he'd risen to the rank of lieutenant and
- 2:24received a Navy Rifle Marksmanship Ribbon and a Navy Pistol Shot ribbon for his expertise
- 2:30in firearms. But when Christopher wasn't working as a Navy reservist, he was
- 2:37back at his studies to become a police officer. When he returned from duty
- 2:40in two thousand and seven, training offers to Teresa. Evans was put in
- 2:45charge of overseeing Christopher's training, but the relationship seemed to grate on the pair
- 2:50of them right from the start. Christopher confided in Teresa that he planned on
- 2:55suing the LAPD once his probationary period was over. He'd previously filed complaints against
- 3:01his classmates and even felt that his department had not taken him seriously enough.
- 3:07Teresa Evans, on the other hand, was already an established member of the
- 3:12force who took Christopher's allegations personally. Tensions were high between Christopher and Teresa,
- 3:17but they reached their peak when they responded to a disturbance of the peace call
- 3:23at a Double Tree hotel in San Pedro. The culprits was a man named
- 3:27Christopher Gettler. He suffered from schizophrenia and dementia. According to the report later
- 3:32filed by Christopher Dorner, Teresa Evans had used excessive force when arresting mister Getler.
- 3:40Dorner claimed that once Teresa had Getler in handcuffs, she'd kicked him twice
- 3:45in the chest and once in the face. The kick to the face allegedly
- 3:49left a visible wound on Getler's cheek. Teresa denied these accusations. Getler himself
- 3:55didn't substantiate them right away to the doctor who treated the wound on his face,
- 4:00but he did later confide in his father. Getler's father claimed that his
- 4:04son had told him that a female officer kicked him during his arrest, and
- 4:09the LAPD split right down the middle. There were those who believed Christopher and
- 4:14those who believed Teresa Evans, and tensions between them grew even higher. Some
- 4:18photos from the scene seemed to contradict Teresa and her witness's version of the events,
- 4:25but Christopher didn't help his case by waiting to file his official complaint against
- 4:29Teresa until after she'd submitted a report saying that Christopher drastically needed to improve his
- 4:34performance. An internal examination that went on for seven months saw Teresa Evans assigned
- 4:41to desk duty, but she was ultimately found not guilty of any charges by
- 4:45a board that consisted of many of her friends. After that, a case
- 4:49was opened against Christopher Dorner, who was then accused of making false charges and
- 4:54complaints against his fellow officers. Both Christopher Gettler and his father testified in Dorner's
- 5:00defense, but by then Christopher Gettler was very ill and couldn't string a sentence
- 5:05together. His father was left to pass on secondhand information, and things didn't
- 5:11go well for Dorner, with testimonies from other responding officers on the scene backing
- 5:15Teresa Evans Up. Christopher Dorner was found guilty and fired from the LAPD.
- 5:23Christopher and his lawyer, former LAPD Captain Randall Kuhan, began a lengthy appeals
- 5:28process, where Kwan stated that Christopher was being unfairly targeted and used as a
- 5:33scapegoat. The courts disagreed and found that Christopher had been lawfully terminated. About
- 5:40the case, Presiding Judge David Yaff wrote that he was uncertain whether the training
- 5:45officer kicked the suspect or not, but that he assumed the LAPD had made
- 5:48the right decision when firing Christopher Dorner. For Christopher, this was devastating news.
- 5:55He was now officially out of a job, but more importantly for him,
- 6:00the LAPD and the courts had come after the one thing he'd held most
- 6:02dear, his integrity. Christopher had been publicly called a liar and humiliated,
- 6:10and saw only one way he could clear his name. Shortly after the final
- 6:15verdict of his case came through, Christopher took the final steps toward what he
- 6:18believed would be righting the wrong that had been committed against him. On February
- 6:25first, twenty thirteen, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper received the package. Inside was
- 6:31a DVD with a detailed breakdown of Christopher's case against the LAPD, and another
- 6:38unusual item. A challenge coin that is usually issued by the LAPD when someone
- 6:44joins their ranks had clearly been shot, and beside it was a note simply
- 6:48saying quote one MOA. This stands for one minute of angle and implies that
- 6:57the shooter had been standing about ninety one meters away when they'd shot through the
- 7:00coin, and by the way, ninety one meters is roughly three hundred feet
- 7:05and is impressive shooting. It was clear that Christopher had an axe to grind
- 7:11with the LAPD, and he also had the skills to turn this feud between
- 7:15them deadly. In response, the LAPD started a state wide man hunt,
- 7:19but it looked like Christopher had gone underground. Just two days later, twenty
- 7:26eight year old Monica Kwan and her fiancee, twenty seven year old Keith Lawrence,
- 7:30were sitting in their car in Irvine, California. Monica was the daughter
- 7:34of former LAPD Captain Randall Kuwan, the same man who'd represented Christopher during his
- 7:40hearing, a representation that Christopher felt had not brought him any justice. Monica
- 7:46and Keith were approached that day by an unknown assailant and shot dead. The
- 7:51very next day, Christopher Dorner made a lengthy post online that began with quote,
- 7:58I know most of you who personally know are in disbelief to hear from
- 8:01the media reports that I am suspected of committing such horrendous murders. Unfortunately,
- 8:07this is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy, but must partake and
- 8:11complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name. The
- 8:18department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days. It has gotten
- 8:22worse. End quote. He also went on to name people that he admired,
- 8:28like Republican John Huntsman and President Obama, though Christopher does admit that Obama
- 8:35wasn't his first choice as president. He mentions Piers Morgan, Ellen DeGeneres,
- 8:39Larry David, Chris Rock, Charlie Sheen. He wrote quote, you're efin
- 8:45awesome, and I wasn't censoring myself just then, he wrote efen. He
- 8:50then pulls things back by saying that he was sad that he wouldn't be around
- 8:54to view and enjoy the Hangover Part three, because Christopher believed that there was
- 9:00only one way that this whole situation was going to end. He wrote,
- 9:03quote, I will not be alive to see my name cleared. That's what
- 9:07this is about my name. No one grows up and wants to be a
- 9:11cop killer. It was against everything I ever was. He named over forty
- 9:16LAPD members and their families as targets, including Randall Kwan for failing to protect
- 9:22him during his hearing. I never had the opportunity to have a family of
- 9:26my own. I'm terminating yours, he wrote. With this confession, the
- 9:31LAPD now had a prime suspect for the murders of Monica Kwan and Keith Lawrence,
- 9:37but they still couldn't actually find Christopher Dorner. Widespread panic ensued. Protection
- 9:43details and officers, volunteers, and the community began to see Christopher behind every
- 9:48corner. The media stirred the public by continuing to post every siding online within
- 9:54minutes of them happening, but one siding came a little too close for comfort
- 9:58for several responding officers. On February seventh, two LAPD officers on their way
- 10:05to join a protection detail were flagged down by two locals who claimed to have
- 10:09seen Christopher at a gas station. The officers responded to the report, only
- 10:15to narrowly escape with their lives when Christopher climbed out of a white pickup and
- 10:20opened fire. Only about twenty minutes later, and in Riverside, California,
- 10:24two other officers were shot. Officer Michael Crane died from his injuries. The
- 10:31other officer was taken to the hospital for surgery and fortunately survived. In the
- 10:35early hours of the morning, a local found the remains of Christopher's car near
- 10:39Big Bear Lake. The car had been set on fire and suggested that Christopher
- 10:45was now hiding somewhere out in the vast Californian wilderness. All schools in the
- 10:50area were shut down and people that lived there were advised to stay home and
- 10:54keep their doors and windows locked. As hundreds of officers scoured the neighborhoods,
- 10:58but they still could not find Christopher. On February twelfth, deputies of the
- 11:03San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department responded to a carjacking and began looking for it both
- 11:09on the ground and in the air. When they did finally spot it,
- 11:13they realized that the now infamous Christopher Dorner was the one driving it. They
- 11:18gave chase followed Christopher back to a cabin near Big Bear Lake, a cabin
- 11:24that officers had already canvassed, but it walked away from when nobody had answered
- 11:28the door. Christopher then responded by opening fire from the inside of the cabin.
- 11:33He hit two officers during the shootout. One of them, Detective Jeremiah
- 11:37McKay, was later pronounced dead after he was airlifted to a nearby medical center.
- 11:43The cabin was then surrounded by law enforcement from several agencies, but Christopher
- 11:48refused to come out or give up. It was only after the police deployed
- 11:52pyrotechnic tear gas inside the cabin that things came to an end. The tear
- 11:58gas sat the cabin on fire, and officers at the scene reported hearing a
- 12:03single gunshot. It looked like everything was finally over, but it still took
- 12:07law enforcement hours to get into the cabin. The fire continued to set off
- 12:13rounds of ammunition, making it impossible for anyone to safely enter until the fire
- 12:18had been put out. Unofficially, Christopher Dorner was dead, killed by his
- 12:22own hand, and a single gunshot wound to the head. This theory was
- 12:28then confirmed on February fourteenth, when the autopsy discovered through dental records that the
- 12:33charred remains found that the scene belonged to Christopher Dorner. Just like his time
- 12:37at the LAPD, Christopher Dorner became the lightning rod for opinions on the state
- 12:43of the Los Angeles Police Department. Some hailed him as a hero, others
- 12:48a murderous villain. Those who knew him personally claimed that the LAPD had tarnished
- 12:54the only thing that would have truly set Christopher off, his integrity. Ron
- 12:58Martin Toonelli, a forensic criminologist and former police officer, said that Christopher should
- 13:05have never been accepted into the LAPD in the first place. Quote, I'm
- 13:09very surprised he was even selected to be a police officer. His personality process,
- 13:13in my opinion, did not fit with law enforcement. You can't seek
- 13:18to control others unless you are in control of yourself. That's ten Minute Murder,
- 13:33brief and vengeable true crime. I'm Joe, I'm the host, and
- 13:37thank you for taking the time to listen to ten Minute Murder. If you're
- 13:39a brand new listener, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening. That's
- 13:43very important. But apparently what is not important is this part of the show.
- 13:48Because I decided to not devote this part to a bunch of talking this
- 13:52time, and instead devoted to the story. I didn't want to cut anything
- 13:56out. I knew it was going to be a little bit too long,
- 13:58and I was trying in the moment to speed myself up, but I couldn't
- 14:01bring myself to do it. And I know what you're saying, Joe,
- 14:03in this economy, you're going to cut a short. Well, I really
- 14:07didn't. I took longer telling the story that I'm meant to, which means
- 14:09I gotta cut this part short. So I love you bye.